The present invention relates to data processing, and more particularly to product modeling.
Business enterprises can generally design, build, and sell one or more products such as, for example, a car. A product such as a car can be configurable. That is, the product can have characteristics that can be varied. For example, a characteristic of a car that can vary is the number of doors. The car can be a sedan or a coupe. There are other characteristics, such as engine size, wheel size, body color, and type of seats, which are configurable.
Business enterprises can use computer systems to facilitate operations such as product design. One example of such systems is a product modeling system. Generally, product modeling of a product refers to a process, usually implemented in a computer system, which defines a model that represents the product. Defining a configurable product can include, for example, specifying characteristics, characteristic values, constraints describing dependencies of the characteristics, default values, values ranges, and other parts of the product. These items can be specified in a configuration model. The configuration model is generally some collection of this information that is needed to configure the product. The configuration model can be an element of the overall product model. The parts of the product can be specified in a product structure that can also be an element of the overall product model.
The configuration model is generally the basis for configuring of a product. For example, the configuration model can include criteria that determine the configuration of the product. Criteria can include, for example, constraints specifying that a particular type of wheel must be used for a particular type of engine.